北宋初期的名丞吕蒙正有言:“时也、命也、运也,非吾之所能也。” 吕蒙正位居宰相,一人之下、万人之上,仍有如此感慨。我们作为这个不平凡时代的平凡人,面对时代洪流时所能做的,无非是做最好的准备,做最坏的打算。什么叫做最好的准备?耶鲁大学校长Peter Salovey 2021年8月28日在欢迎新生的致辞中引用了犹太领袖Rabbi Kagan(1838–1933)的话,当Kagan被问到他何以能拥有如此影响力时他回答: “I set out to try to change the world, but I failed. So, I decided to scale back my efforts and only try to influence the Jewish community of Poland, but I failed there, too. So, I targeted the community in my hometown of Radin, but achieved no greater success. Then I gave all my effort to changing my own family, and failed at that as well. Finally, I decide to change myself, and that’s how I had such an impact on the Jewish world.” “开始的时候,我尝试改变世界,但我失败了。所以我决定缩小范围,只尝试影响波兰的犹太社区,但在那里我也失败了。于是我把目标锁定在我的家乡雷丁(现属白俄罗斯)的社区,但也没有取得多大成功。然后我又把所有的努力都集中在改变我自己的家庭上,但依旧以失败告终。最后,我决定改变自己,这就是我能对犹太世界产生影响的原因。” (作者为财经十一人主编,感谢陈贤忠精良的数据支持)